Singed
by Mai Kusakabe
Summary: Commodore Portgas D. Ace thought his life was somewhat on track until he found himself stranded on an uninhabited island with a pirate who just wouldn't act as pirates are supposed to. Marco x Ace
1. Chapter 1

Hello :)

I'd wanted to write a Marco x Ace for a long time now, as they're my OTP, but I didn't have any idea until not long ago. I've always found interesting the idea of Ace as a Marine, so here's a combination of both things.

This is a semi-AU. It takes place in the One Piece world but some things are different, mostly Ace being a marine and its consequences.

I know I have several in-progress stories, but my muse is a little whore that can't help going with the most attractive plot bunny u.u It's not like I'm dropping any story (which I most definitely am NOT) but writing a little of everything does help get past bad times, at least it does to me. Especially when I should be doing other things, that's when my brain becomes the most active.

Contrary to other of my stories, I'm not promising any update schedule, what I'll say is that this story is completely thought out, and it will be considerably shorter than all my other works in progress.

Also, this has passed through several people before being posted, having been beta-read by **Dearshul **and proof-read by **The Red Harlequin On The Luna** and **Carismai**, so I hope it's not too bad.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Marco the Phoenix sighed as he sat on the ship's railing, staring absentmindedly at the vast sea that extended as far as the sight could reach.

Two days ago, a call had arrived through a den den mushi asking for help at one of their islands, telling them about a pirate crew that had been able to defeat their local strongest fighters and had proclaimed the island as theirs.

That place wasn't like Fishman Island, with someone as strong as Jinbe to protect it, and so Whitebeard had dispatched both the first and second divisions, the later still without commander, to help.

It had been a disappointing fight.

Marco hadn't even needed to get serious to defeat the idiot who called himself captain of a barely known crew, and at the sight of how easily their captain was practically killed, the other pirates, that by then weren't in a very good shape either, had surrendered and promptly fled.

Marco had a feeling that crew would become one of many that left the New World to return to the relative safety of Paradise.

"Guys, marines!" That yell, coming from the crow's nest, got his attention easily.

Maybe this trip wouldn't be completely disappointing.

* * *

Commodore Portgas D. Ace grinned at the news of a pirate ship in sight and, opposed to the anxiousness most of the marines felt when the ship was identifies as belonging to the Whitebeard Pirates, though it wasn't the Moby Dick itself, Ace's excitement just grew.

The fights were one of the few perks of being a marine, and the ship that, instead of fleeing, was now rapidly approaching them promised to give a good fight. With some luck there would even be one or two commanders on board.

He let the other officers take care of yelling orders and organize their offensive, not that cannonballs would do much against such a crew, and he tried to concentrate on his barely under control Kenbunshoku Haki to try to identify how many powerful enemies were there.

Leave it to the old geezer, just like with any other of his 'training' methods, to give his the most basic notions about how to control his haki before throwing him back into a ship, ignoring everyone's advice on the matter.

Ace's grin widened when he realized the average strength of the crew seemed to be far above that of any other pirate crew's he had encountered so far.

This promised to be fun.

* * *

Marco easily located the man he'd been looking for amongst the excited crewmembers moving hurriedly on deck, some taking things out of the way, others getting rid of the cannonballs before they could hit the ship and a few returned the fire, that had the same effect on the marines that it did on them.

"Teach!" He called.

Marshall D. Teach, carrying a plate with two pizzas he was rapidly devouring, turned to the approaching commander and grinned.

"Hey, Commander Marco! Ain't this great? And we were gettin' bored."

Marco returned the grin.

"Yeah. You're in charge of the second division. Defend the ship."

"Got'cha."

With that, Marco turned to holler orders at the first division, whose members cheered loud at the prospect of being on the attacking team. There were some indignant complaints from the second division, but not many, as they knew if the marines were half competent they would manage to board their ship, and barely any marine ship sailed the New World without at least a vice admiral on it.

Marco licked his lips in anticipation when he saw the ships were almost parallel to each other and at jumping distance for some.

With battle cries from both sides, the chaos began.

* * *

Ace, joining in the enthusiasm of his fellow marines, charged at the pirates invading the ship. At any other time he would have been really annoyed at the idea of being on the team protecting the ship, but against the Whitebeard Pirates he was sure most of the battle would take place on the marine vessel.

Stronger than average as these pirates were, they still didn't pose any challenge for him, just a fun way to release pent up energy, and he noticed most men seemed hesitant to approach him once his fire logia became evident to them.

A flash of blue above their heads drew most men's attention to the cloudy sky, and Ace watched in fascination as a flaming blue bird descended on the battleship, its whole body with the exception of the wings turning into a human male form a mere instant before he took out two captains and tens of soldiers with a powerful kick.

Ace grinned fiercely, immediately recognizing the man as Marco the Phoenix, and, distractedly shooting a column of fire at a group of pirates, started running in that direction.

"Portgas!"

Ace stopped, grimaced and turned around to face a stern-looking vice admiral Onigumo. He gave his superior his best grin, but it had never worked on the man.

"Yes, Sir?"

"You're supposed to defend the ship, not run head first into battle." The vice admiral scolded him.

Ace held the impulse of making a childish gesture at the man.

"But, Sir, the men won't be able to beat him."

A glare told him to shut up.

"I'll take care of him, you do your job."

Without another word, the vice admiral left. Ace stuck his tongue out at his retreating back, followed it with his middle finger and sent another column of fire at a group of pirates who tried to attack him.

That man was always stealing all the fun guys from him.

* * *

Marco kicked another marine away, sending him straight at a group of them that, at the strength of the impact, went flying several feet backwards.

Smirking, he threw his body to the side right in time to avoid ten swords that would have pierced him otherwise, and directed his smirk at the tall man with the spider arms coming out of his body that had just attacked him.

_Vice admiral Onigumo, if I'm not wrong._

Marco dodged another swing of the blades and let the next attack cut him just for the satisfaction of seeing the marine's frustrated expression when his body healed and no trace of the wounds was left.

At the next attack, Marco ducked out of the path of all the swords but one that he stopped with his foot, using enough strength to send the vice admiral flying into the ship's mast.

He barely had any time to bask in the surprised and horrified gasps of the marines surrounding him when a powerful explosion rocked the ocean and the ships floating there, the noise enough to momentarily deafen all those standing on both ships.

A deathly silence, not entirely as a result of the explosion still ringing in his ears, fell on the battlefield. No one moved for long moments and then Marco slowly turned around, for the light after the detonation had come from his back, from the other ship. His crew's ship.

There, smoke still clearing and a couple of small fires no one was trying to put off coming to life, were several bodies strewn over the wrecked part of the deck, marines and pirates alike, and from all the crumbled forms, from all the mangled, bloodied and partially burnt bodies, Marco's eyes stopped on the first face he could see and recognize.

On top of a crumbled crate, legs twisted at an impossible angle, was Teach, his head open and blood covering the wood beneath it, unseeing eyes staring what seemed to be straight at Marco.

Instinct kicking in through the shock, Marco ducked before he could be conscious of why he was doing it, but he wasn't fast enough and a cold, emptying metal closed around his wrist as he felt a fire dying inside of him. For what he was fast enough was to pull his arm with enough strength to free his restraint from the hand holding it and dodge the blades aimed for his body.

Marco rolled on the floor and stood up again, facing vice admiral Onigumo, who looked at him with a smug expression, five swords in hand, four handcuffs hanging from four of his spidery hands and the tenth one empty, the handcuffs it had held now clamped around Marco's right wrist.

An entirely different silence occupied the battlefield, broken by an enthusiastic marine's victorious exclamation, followed soon by those of many others.

Marco barely registered the worried exclamations of his crewmembers. He pressed his heels on the floor for less than could be measured and took the necessary impulse to launch himself at Onigumo, his speed so that when the marine officer started to raise his swords he already had a sandal pressed against his face, and once again found himself flying through the ship's deck.

"As if this changes anything." Marco practically growled, his playful mood gone with the events of the past minute.

* * *

Ace had to hold in a laugh at the sight of the vice admiral flying across the deck. _Again_. And this time it couldn't even be blamed on the pirate's devil fruit.

"That guy's cool." He whistled in a low voice, but apparently not low enough.

"Commodore!" Yelled a nearby soldier, an appalled expression on his face.

Ace chuckled.

"Sorry."

Kicking an attacking pirate, this time Ace managed to hold his comments when the blond pirate grabbed a sword from the floor and parried Onigumo's next attack, and the marines' momentary boost in confidence vanished when the vice admiral was punched through a wall. By Marco's right hand. And the moment the loose cuff hit the officer's face, his added arms disappeared and the swords he had once again managed to hold with all of them clattered to the floor.

Ace was expecting the pirate to go after his superior and finish the job, which he wouldn't have really complained about, but the man stopped, looked around for a moment, and then surprised everybody by yelling at the top of his lungs for all his men to go back to their ship.

Several stupid blinks later, all the pirates complied without question while half of the marines still stared uncomprehendingly at the pirate commander, who now was kicking away, and in most cases overboard, any marine who had reacted and tried to attack the retreating pirates.

Ace looked around, trying to see what had prompted that strange reaction and half expecting to see a Yonko's ship or something of the sort, but there was nothing strange, just the dark clouds on the sky and the ocean's waves.

Then it all happened in a matter of seconds.

The waves grew, moving faster and faster at each hit to the ships, and rain started to pour down, so fast and so much that it seemed as if part of the ocean itself was falling down on them, and instead of just rocking the ship, a wave hit it with suck strength that it almost capsized it, the ship leaning so much to the side that most men lost their footing, and those standing close to the side, Ace included, fell over the side, plunging down to the ocean.

Ace's eyes widened in shock as he tried to transform and use his fire to propel himself up on deck again just to realize that the thick rain falling from the sky put out any fire before it could come out of his body.

And, just like everyone else, Ace hit the surface of the water and the currents took control over his motionless body.

**To be continued**

* * *

First chapter done :)

Now, I know we don't have an exact date for Thatch's murder in the manga, but at Marineford we saw a flashback of Ace showing Whitebeard Luffy's first wanted poster. As it takes some days to sail all the way to Drum from the New World and Blackbeard found some nakama on the way, I'd say Thatch was killed a couple of days after the poster came out, so this story is the same day Luffy's become a wanted man.

You know, I got a good amount of perverse pleasure writing the explosion. I hope it wasn't too obvious how much I hate Blackbeard, as here he still hasn't done anything to be thought as anything but another member of the crew. I also had fun having Marco beat Onigumo around. After the handcuffs thing at Marineford I really wanted to do it, but here, without Kizaru to shoot Marco when he's distracted, the handcuffs didn't make much of a difference.

Well, see you next chapter ^-^ If you'd be so nice as to leave a review I'd really love it :)


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you so much for the good reception this story has had ^^ I'm happy to see you're interested, as I'm having a lot of fun working on this :)

And here is chapter 2.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Ace groaned, raising an arm in a futile attempt to block the light assaulting his eyes as he turned around just to get his face full of sand.

That woke him up instantly.

He sat up, opening his eyes and closing them again at the glare of the sun, covering them again with an arm.

Ace groaned again.

Using his free hand to feel the ground he was sitting on, and by the salty smell assaulting him, it was easy to guess he was at a beach.

He guessed that was to be expected after falling into the sea, provided the two most likely options of drowning or being rescued and hauled back to the ship didn't happen.

"You awake?"

Ace jumped at the unknown voice and turned around, managing to open his eyes as soon as the sun rays weren't falling directly on his face.

There, standing mere feet away with a serious expression and a roll of thick wire held in one hand, was none other than Marco the Phoenix.

Ace's mouth fell open.

Marco smirked slightly.

Ace closed his mouth and glared.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" He ground out.

The pirate didn't have the decency to stop smirking as he answered.

"Same as you: almost drowning."

Ace couldn't tell if it was the shock finally fading, some remaining emotion from the previous battle or simply that damned smirk and the pirate's completely calm attitude, but, whatever the reason, he jumped up and went straight for the man, fist raised with clear intentions. Marco dropped the wire, stopped his punch and delivered a kick to Ace's stomach that sent him backwards.

Growling, Ace covered his arms in fire and went for another attack, but before he could react he found himself on his back, part of his body submerged in inches of water that reached to his ears on the head, and two hands holding his arms, a kairoseki cuff pressed against his skin. The unpleasant emptiness that came with the sea and the metal filled him, and the fire wouldn't come no matter how much he called for it.

"Don't be stupid." Marco said, and Ace glared up at him. "I may not be able to use my power, but I can still beat you."

"Wanna bet on that?" Ace challenged him.

Now it was Marco who glared.

"Do you really want to get in a fight? Take a look around."

The man moved away from on top of him, a hand still holding Ace's arm and pressing the kairoseki against it.

Ace tried to pull away from it, but when that didn't work he reluctantly did as the pirate told him.

As he had guessed, they were at a beach. A small, beautiful beach with almost white sand, some rocks covering it until they disappeared in a nearby line of trees of what seemed to be the beginning of a forest.

Covering the sand were scattered objects, most of them broken pieces of wood or scraps of metal, but sometimes there were other things, like the roll of wire Marco had been carrying, a wooden crate or a cannonball. Most of these objects were piled next to the biggest rock and, a little further in the sand, three other men lay: two marines and a pirate.

"Are they unconscious too?"

"No."

Ace fell silent, the curse words that came to his mind too shallow to utter.

It was stupid, he was used to men dying in battle all the time, he had no doubt that dozens of them, if not more, had died at the battle between their two ships, and still, the sight of the three bodies laying there, looking so peaceful in such a place, no blood, weapons or burnt marks marking the ground as proof of a battle, was both sobering and disheartening at the same time.

If anything had been even the slightest bit different, he could be one of them right now.

After what seemed hours but couldn't have been more than a few minutes, Ace finally spoke.

"It's ironic that the two devil fruit users are the ones to survive."

"Yeah." Marco said, his hold on Ace loosening slightly.

All of a sudden the marine didn't want to fight.

"Shouldn't we… bury them?" Ace asked, turning his head to look at Marco, who nodded.

"I found a nearby clearing on the forest."

"Good."

Marco let go of him, probably sensing Ace wasn't going to attack him, and both men stood up, a silent truce between them as they headed toward the three dead men that should have had more chances of survival, none of them being dead weight in the ocean as they were.

* * *

Marco rubbed his forehead with his sleeve as he stood up once the last grave had been refilled with the soil they had removed earlier and marked with several stones.

The labor itself shouldn't have been that hard, but the waves hadn't brought to land anything remotely similar to a shovel, and that meant they had been forced to dig with wood pieces and occasionally with their hands, but finally it was done and the three dead men were as properly buried as the situation allowed it. Which was a provisional arrangement, at least for poor William, who the crew would bury properly once they were all here. The least he deserved was a coffin.

Marco could feel his companion's restlessness even before the young man spoke.

"Well, that's it, I'm leaving." The marine said gruffly, throwing the wood piece he'd been using to the ground.

"Don't bother, this island is uninhabited." Marco said, guessing what the other intended to do.

The dark-haired man blinked.

"What?"

"I've been here before, no humans have lived on this island for years."

It had taken some time, but Marco finally had guessed in which island they had ended. It was a small place, barely more than a rock, almost completely covered by a forest. A beautiful but not friendly forest inhabited by not so friendly animals. The good thing was that there was more than enough food and drinking water.

"Yeah, and I'm just gonna believe you." The man almost spat, crossing his arms moodily over his chest.

If he hadn't been convinced before, the current display would be enough to prove to Marco that this marine was one of the most stubborn people he had ever met.

"You can check it yourself, this island is small enough to walk from one end to the other in less than half a day. I'll be right here when you see I'm right."

That comment earned him a glare.

"As if I need your help. I know how to survive in a forest just fine." And, without another word, the boy turned around and left.

Marco chuckled at the kid's retreating form. He was an interesting piece for a marine, and with the strength he had displayed at the beach the pirate didn't doubt the young man would survive perfectly at an average forest.

But Marco was sure he couldn't survive in this particular forest, not as he was right now at least.

Deciding the brat needed a blow to the face from reality to get his pride down a notch or two, Marco turned to go to the beach in search of some things he didn't want to abandon for the island's inhabitants to trample on.

* * *

Ace sucked the last crumbs of meat off the bone he held in one hand. Had he been Luffy, he would have eaten the bone along with everything else, but he threw it on the ground as he had done with all the others.

He had barely stopped to catch a meal and had cooked it with his power as he ate. If the pirate had been right, which Ace was very reluctant to consider, then he still had a couple of hours to walk before he reached the coast again.

Ace was inclined to believe, as much as it pained him to admit, the other man's words about the island's lack of inhabitants, but unfortunately he still wasn't used to his haki enough to tell for sure in such a big place, he could barely tell apart the presences in half of it, but he would be damned before admitting that to a pirate, much more to take said pirate's word for true without checking.

And he didn't need the man's help.

Eyes opening like saucers, Ace threw himself to the side just in time to avoid a huge and fast paw that collided with the place where he had just been with enough strength to create a crater.

_What the-?_

This time Ace had to duck from a hind leg belonging to a ridiculously huge bear with way too big teeth.

Annoyed, Ace turned his arms into fire and threw two columns of it at the bear, but right before they impacted the beast vanished from its place and Ace would have been crushed if he wasn't a logia user that wasn't caught completely unaware.

Ace tried to surround the bear this time, but again it evaded him, and this time it tired to bite his arm off, jumping back the moment Ace turned it to fire, and the man frowned when he noticed the bear hadn't burned itself.

Then the bear's eyes opened wide and it fell in a boneless heap to the ground.

Ace stared at the blond pirate standing behind the bear, a hand up and an almost lazy expression on his face.

Ace glared.

"What are _you_ doing here?"

"Saving your ass, apparently." The pirate answered nonchalantly, and Ace's glare intensified.

"I didn't need saving."

"Really? And here I'd got the impression if you weren't a logia you'd be dead already."

"But I _am_ a logia."

"And what will you do? Stay awake all the time to make sure nothing gets you or risk it when you fall asleep that nothing stronger than you will attack?" The man asked in a clearly mocking tone, and Ace grit his teeth.

He wasn't an idiot, he knew that bear had been stronger than him, and what the pirate was saying was without having in account his little issue with sleep.

"I guess you have a better idea?" Ace asked, fists clenched at his unspoken admission of defeat.

The blond man smiled, and though Ace felt surprised that it wasn't a mocking smirk he didn't show it.

Raising his right hand, the pirate asked:

"How are you at picking locks? It isn't really my thing."

"As if I would get that thing off you!" Ace snarled. "You'd fly off and leave me here the moment it'd be off!"

The other man just shrugged, and Ace had the impression he had been expecting that reaction.

"Then what about this? We stick together, as I told you I've been here before, and in exchange you act as my personal heater." Ace flushed indignantly but was cut off before he could yell anything. "Not like that." The man gave his body a very obvious once over. "Though I wouldn't complain." Ace's retort was cut again. "I meant with your powers."

Ace blinked.

"Oh. But it's warm here."

A raised eyebrow.

"You're a walking heater. But you're right, the day is warm enough, but this is a spring island and, if I'm not mistaken, in its spring season. Nights are bound to be cold, and without my powers I'm exposed to it just like anybody else."

Ace had to concede that the explanation made sense.

"So now what? We go to the beach and try to stop a ship?"

That comment earned him what probably was the man's equivalent of an 'are you stupid?' expression.

"This is the New World, brat. You really think that's smart?"

Ace thought of it. Most pirate ships, at the sight of a marine and a famous Whitebeard pirate with kairoseki handcuffs would try to kill them. Marines too, probably branding Ace a traitor for not killing the criminal. As if he hadn't tried. Ace didn't doubt they could beat a good part of those people, that if the pirate didn't turn against him, but any ship sailing this ocean, if it survived the battle, couldn't be handled by just two men.

"Then what?" He asked reluctantly, crossing his arms.

"I'm going to wait for my crew."

Ace blinked, now utterly confused.

"Your crew?"

"They should be looking for the missing men by now."

Ace would have commented on the absurdity of that statement, not even the marines looked for the men lost to the sea, but he knew of the Whitebeard Pirates' uncommon view of their crew, but he hadn't expected it to be like this. Marco had sounded so sure of his statement that Ace didn't want to contradict him.

Instead, he said:

"I guess I'll have to build a raft then." A raised eyebrow was his only response, and Ace felt compelled to clarify: "And don't think I trust you just because I'm agreeing to this."

The pirate smiled.

"I didn't doubt it."

* * *

To say Edward Newgate was worried would be an understatement. He had ordered his ships to turn around the moment the call had arrived. It had come as soon as the other ship managed to escape the storm, and they were still counting their losses, but some things were already clear: they had eleven confirmed deaths, and several men were missing, Marco being amongst them.

Whitebeard wasn't the only one worried, the whole crew was, and they were already calling their allies to tell them to keep an eye out for any member of the crew as their ships headed to the approximate area where the battle took place.

Several feet in front of him, Thatch paced in circles.

"Calm down, son."

"I can't calm down!" Thatch practically spat, a proof of how anxious he was, and continued pacing. "What the fuck was that idiot thinking?! First he gets shackled and then thrown into the ocean?! He's an anchor!"

Whitebeard agreed wholeheartedly with his son's words, but he had known Marco long enough to know the man wouldn't die that easily.

He had to remind himself of that almost every minute.

**To be continued**

* * *

Please, leave me a review :3


	3. Chapter 3

-hugs you all- Thank you so much for all the beautiful reviews ^^

It took me longer than expected to get this chapter out, but here it is.

Oh, and in a completely unrelated note, my muse is a whore. I needed to say that.

**Chapter 3**

Vice admiral Onigumo glared at the front of the ship, where those marines that weren't in such a bad shape were doing basic reparations.

He was displeased at the result of the battle mere hours ago. Of course, it was a good thing that his ship had resisted the sudden appearance of that tornado, but no one had seen the other ship sinking, which meant it could have escaped as well. Right now the infirmary was filled with injured men, and two storerooms now housed the bodies of the deceased marines that had remained on the ship after the storm. Those bodies would be returned to their families, and once they had taken inventory of the disappeared men their families would be notified.

That was another reason to be displeased or, more accurately, extremely apprehensive. It wasn't his task to notify about deaths to the families, but in this case there was an exception: Portgas D. Ace was one of the missing men and, as much as the vice admiral would feel much more relaxed without that annoying, rebellious brat on board, the boy's only known relative was none other than the hero of the marines, vice admiral Monkey D. Garp. As the man was a high-ranking marine, it was Portgas' superior's job to notify him.

Onigumo dreaded that conversation.

* * *

Ace looked curiously at the crate the pirate had left leaning against a tree before coming to his not needed rescue. He was convinced it was the same one he had noticed upon waking, and peering inside he saw it was filled with several of the other objects that had drifted ashore. There were clay and glass containers broken but that appeared still capable of fulfilling their purpose, the roll of wire the pirate had carried when Ace first woke, bits of broken rope, some longer than others, pieces of ripped fabric and weapons. A couple of guns, a broken sword, what seemed to be an intact knife and even two cannon balls.

"What're the weapons for?" Ace asked, curiosity making him forget who his companion was.

The pirate shrugged.

"You never know what you might need."

That said, the pirate lifted the crate and started to walk away. Frowning, Ace followed the man.

"Hey, brat," the blond spoke after a while of walking in silence, "what's your name?"

"Why do you care?" Ace spat.

"You'd rather I keep calling you 'brat'?"

Ace frowned, willing to recognize he didn't like to be called that way. Too many people did, and he thought it unfair, as if by doing so they didn't recognize his strength and accomplishments.

"… Ace. Portgas D. Ace."

"D?"

Ace turned his head to see the man had a raised eyebrow. His frown deepened.

"Got a problem with that?"

"No. It's just interesting."

And, ignoring Ace's stare, the pirate didn't explain further.

It wasn't long before Ace started to hear the telltale sound of water running. Had he been back at the forest with Luffy, or even with his fellow marines, Ace would have run forward to see the source of the sound as soon as possible, his almost empty canteen heavy on his belt, but as things were, he held back the impulse and waited until their steps, marked by the other man's relaxed pace, brought them there. He wasn't about to walk behind him, but neither would he expose his back. Ace ignored the small part of his mind reminding him that Marco had already beat him once that day and that exposing or not exposing his back wouldn't make much of a difference if the man decided to attack him.

The source of the sound was a thin waterfall pouring down into a small lake from which two slim streams were born and headed out in different directions.

Half into the lake, drinking its water, was a pack of enormous animals resembling but not quite being hippopotamus. Ace could count ten of them. The animals looked up at them, and neither man was surprised when they attacked, no doubt defending what was their territory.

Ace tensed, ready to burn them and scare them with his fire or, better yet, turn them into dinner. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Marco readying to fight as well, but the man didn't let go of the crate and Ace snorted at his apparent overconfidence. He didn't have time to do much more before he was forced to jump out of the way. He fell down on top of one of the animals, turning his whole body into fire and grinning when the hippopotamus howled in pain, the sound dying as the animal did as well, and Ace called down the fire when it fell.

There was dinner.

The spectacle was enough to scare the rest off, and they ran away as fast as their bodies would allow, neither Ace nor Marco bothering to go after them.

Ace turned to the other man.

"You didn't fight." He reproached.

The blond shrugged.

"You did the job just fine."

"Well, then this is _my_ dinner." He pointed at the dead and already cooked hippopotamus. "Don't touch it."

The pirate looked indifferently at him and walked to a tree closer to the lake's shore.

"Fine, I'll just get something else."

Ace followed the man with his eyes as he knelt down to leave the crate on the ground and took out one of the containers. He watched as the other filled it with water and drank, for an instant wondering if that water was really good for drinking, but put that thought away. Those animals had been drinking here, and hadn't the pirate said he had been on this island before?

Marco turned to him and smirked. Ace felt uneasy.

"Oh, Ace?" the younger man resisted the urge to fidget, suddenly uncomfortable. "That is _my _crate." The pirate pointed to said object. "Don't touch it."

Ace's temper flared.

"As if I wanted to!"

* * *

Thirteen confirmed deaths, the bodies on the ship to prove it. Eight missing men, Marco being one of them.

Thatch sat on a chair at the end of the infirmary that acted now as the improvised morgue, staring at the mangled body of Marshall D. Teach. The man had been a member of the crew for many years, one of the people that had been on board for longer, already being part of the crew back in the times when Roger still lived and they fought the man's crew on a regular basis. After the death of the previous second division commander, Pops had offered the position to the man, but Teach had refused, saying it wasn´t his thing, and no one had insisted, respecting his decision.

Now Thatch felt selfish, even cruel, wishing no real commander would occupy one of those beds. He didn't want anybody else occupying them, but out of all the possibilities, seeing Marco there was the scariest of all.

The man wasn't only his brother, he had been his best friend for years, and Thatch would drag his ass back from the realm of the dead to beat the shit out of him if he had dared to go and die on him.

Biting his lips, refusing to cry when everything was still so uncertain, the fourth division commander buried his face in his hands.

* * *

Marco smiled, amused, seeing the young marine draw a line on the ground between them with a stick.

"Don't pass from there." The brat, Ace, growled, and his glare hardened when he noticed the pirate's expression.

"Of course not." Marco assured him. He could have teased him, but their forced interactions had made it clear Ace's temper was less than short, and the boy had kept his part of the agreement: he was close enough for Marco to feel the warmth emanating from his body and three fires were alight close to Marco. Having a logia fire user at hand was useful, undoubtedly easier than lighting the fire the old-fashioned way, especially without a lighter to make things easier.

Huffing, Ace dropped onto the hard ground and turned his back on Marco, who took the opportunity to have a closer look at him. He had snuck glances at the boy here and there, but they had been fast not to attract his attention. Marco wasn't afraid of him, but seeing his obvious temper he had no doubt the marine could be a real pain in the ass, a prickly pain in the ass.

A curious, prickly pain in the ass, to be more precise.

The brat was an enigma.

First of all he was strong. Stronger than Onigumo, that was for sure, but still he had been on the vice admiral's ship, meaning he had a lower rank than the man, as two vice admirals never traveled together on the same ship unless there was some special circumstances, and those circumstances could never be kept from the rest of the world. Marco hadn't heard the marines were up for anything different than usual. Not to mention, if there was a vice admiral like Ace he would be known, and probably feared by many pirates. Marco had never heard rumors of a ridiculously strong fire user, and that meant that, at least in the New World, the kid wasn't known.

Then there was the D in his name. Marco didn't know the story attached to that particular letter, but he knew there was one, a story his father did know and regarded as not only interesting, but important. Even if Marco hadn't believed the supposed story to mean anything, though he thought it did, he had all the people he knew with that letter in their name as examples. The most notorious was Gol D. Roger, the late Pirate King, a man strong enough to have fought his father himself on equal terms. And Marco hadn't missed the government's attempt to make that letter disappear from his name. Monkey D. Garp, the hero of the marines, was another monster capable of fighting Roger on multiple occasions and was also said to be the man who had captured him. Marco didn't believe that one, but the man's strength was unquestionable. Then, there had been Marshall D. Teach, a pang stung Marco's chest when he remembered the man was now dead, who, despite not having been a haki user like the previous two men, had been strong enough to be offered a position as a division commander. Ace was strong too, ridiculously so for someone who had to be in his early twenties, and was a haki user. Not for too long, if his use of the skill was an indicator, but it would improve with time and practice. He wasn't only strong, but fearless and reckless. Those seemed to be shared traits amongst the people with the D in their names, too.

And last, but what puzzled Marco the most, was the brat's attitude. Not his attempt to defeat him or his general rudeness, those were to be expected, but the complete lack of comments about justice, about taking him down for the benefit of the world, and about the World Government. For all his barbs, insults and snappish remarks, that hadn't been few as they settled down and ate, Ace hadn't mentioned the marines, the government or the supposed 'justice' they stood for even once. With the notorious exception of Garp and his occasional fight with Whitebeard, Marco had never been in the presence of a marine for more than five minutes without hearing at least a mention of one or several of those.

This dark haired kid, with the too tight marine uniform pressed around his muscles, his grumpy attitude and the completely out of place freckles that made him look more boyish than he probably liked, was a puzzle, and Marco liked puzzles. Especially when he was trapped with said puzzle on an uninhabited island with nothing more to do than wait for his crew to find him.

And he was fun to rile up. That was a nice bonus.

Marco decided to lay down and try to sleep now that he could, as something told him it would be hard to do so once morning came and his companion woke up again. He laid back on the torn sail he had placed on the ground, his head resting on the makeshift pillow he had made out of the smaller ripped pieces of fabric he had found at the beach, and pulled another piece of sail over his body, acting as an improvised blanket.

Ace's glare when he saw the pillow had been priceless, and Marco grinned again at the memory of it, convinced as he had been back then that the boy's pride had been the only thing preventing him from asking Marco if he could use the remaining fabric to make another pillow.

**To be continued**

* * *

I'd love it if you left a review :D


	4. Chapter 4

I'm back :) A little later than I expected, but here's the next chapter. But before…

Due to personal reasons, Dearshul can't beta for me anymore, and so, from now on, this story will be beta'd by the wonderful **Aerle**, who's agreed to do it in a really short notice :)

I wanted to thank you all for the good reception this story is having. We are over fifty alerts and favorites in just three chapters, something I never thought would happen with one of my stories, and I had never received so many reviews for the beginning of a story. So, really. thank you.

Sorry I got emotional. Let's move to the chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Waking up to the smell of food beat doing so due to the sun any time, and Ace swallowed the excess of saliva that had accumulated in his mouth, sitting up and snapping his eyes open, glad that there was no sun to bother him this time, as it was still low enough for the trees to block it.

His mood soured considerably once he realized the wonderful smell came from some animal that damned pirate was cooking over one of his fires, using an improvised structure the man had assembled together with some branches the night before so it wouldn't burn. And it hadn't, as the smell of burned meat was nowhere to be found in the smoke drifting in his direction.

Ace's stomach growled loudly, reminding him that a whole night of not eating was unacceptable, and demanding to be fed.

The blond pirate turned his head at that, and smiled at him. Ace glared.

"Are you hungry?"

"I can catch my own food." He growled, just at the same time as his stomach did. The other man's smile changed, and Ace was sure he was laughing at him. His glare intensified.

"I don't doubt that, but your stomach doesn't seem willing to wait."

"It'll wait, I don't need your charity."

Despite the pirate's strange eyebrows, the man didn't seem to have any problem to raise one further.

"I'm a pirate, I don't do charity. You can come and eat breakfast, then catch lunch or something later, or we can continue this stupid thing of eating separately and waste food."

Much to his frustration, Ace had to admit the man had a point. Contrary to Ace's bottomless stomach, Marco hadn't eaten the whole animal he had caught the night before, and Ace's pride had prevented him from taking the remaining meat, no matter how much he had wanted to.

Sighing, the young marine stood up and walked to the fire.

"Alright, but we'll get one meal each." He said, refusing to be in anyone's debt, much less a damned pirate's.

The blond man just smiled and gestured for Ace to sit down.

* * *

Ace grumbled, thinking that he shouldn't have made it so obvious he didn't want to be dependent on the other man. Now he was lying on the ground, his chest and stomach covered with all the clay pots and bowls Marco had collected, filled with water as much as their broken shapes could take, while Ace carefully controlled his flames right under his skin to boil it.

After breakfast, the pirate had uttered a very colorful string of curses and stated they were both idiots. Before Ace could retort at how the only idiot there was the other man, Marco had said that they didn't know how long they would be there and, though the water _was_ drinkable, it would be safer to purify it, just in case. Ace had been drinking safely from streams and rivers his whole life and had never been sick, but wisely remembered that this was the New World. Seeing the animals and plants, he really didn't want to risk it and discover what sort of diseases could be found here.

And that was why he was now in this undignified position, using his fire powers to boil as much water as possible.

The pirate had left with a couple of glass jars saying he would look for any recognizable fruits to eat.

* * *

Marco came back to the small lake carrying a jar full of a variety of green bananas found in this island and the other filled with plums. He remembered this island had a wider variety of fruits from the crew's previous stop here, but for today these would do. The young marine was a walking black hole, not that it surprised Marco, and what he carried, that would last two people with a normal appetite for a week if they accompanied it with meat, wouldn't probably last until dinner.

Luckily, he had found other trees that had fruit besides the two where he had picked the fruit today, or they would run out of it in less than a week.

Marco wasn't stupid, and he knew it was likely that such an amount of time, if not more, would pass before his crew found him. There were a lot of islands near the area where the battle had occurred, most of them small, but big enough that it would take hours to search them, because Pops would want to be completely sure none of his sons were really there and not rely completely on haki. And this particular island wasn't one of the closest to the battle. If it weren't for the strange and sometimes unpredictable currents in this ocean, they wouldn't even have reached the shore alive.

Marco's thoughts left the rescue party when he arrived at camp and found Ace sitting with his back to him, the clay containers now left next to the crate.

* * *

Ace cursed, glared at the pirate and cursed again.

This was the fifth log had he burned accidentally, his supposed raft consisting of two meager pieces of wood tied together by some of the rope that drifted into the beach the previous day.

He dropped the now charred log, kicking it once it was on the ground, and turned to glare again at the annoying pirate when the man chuckled.

Instead of doing something productive, and here Ace conveniently ignored that there wasn't anything productive to do, the irritating man was leaning against a tree, watching his efforts and not bothering to hide his amusement at Ace's misfortune.

He was sure not even half of the logs would have caught fire if the man wasn't watching.

"What's so funny, asshole?" Ace growled.

Marco smiled at him, completely unfazed by his glare.

* * *

The ship that had been affected by the explosion and the storm was in no condition to take part in the search, and so they left it docked at the first island the crew reached, half of their shipwrights staying there to work on it.

The island was a relatively small one, with only two towns and some isolated houses on it.

Whitebeard's sons scattered across it as soon as they stepped on land, searching for any information about their missing crewmembers or, better yet, the men themselves.

The captain himself stayed behind with the men in charge to watch the ships and the ones who had spread maps across the deck to organize the search in the nearby islands and to coordinate the routes of their available ships.

And, once the search in this island was done, there was a burial to be held.

* * *

Marco was bored, and he had no issues admitting it. Being stranded at an uninhabited island with his powers blocked wasn't exactly his idea of a good time, even less if his only company refused to talk for anything that wasn't hurling insults at him. The marine had a vast vocabulary in the topic, Marco would give him that, but it didn't make the situation much more entertaining.

He could always go beat something up, but he had already caught dinner and it hadn't been all that satisfying either. Or long.

In his boredom, Marco's eyes looked around, in search of something of interest, and they landed on the young marine.

Ace was asleep, he didn't seem to have any trouble to fall asleep as soon as he laid down, sprawled on the ground and snoring softly. Due to his fire power, he didn't need to cover himself, and that gave Marco a good view to look at. He had already noticed Ace was good looking, he did so the moment he pulled the boy's unconscious body completely out of the sea, but now he had time to look at him more closely.

Without the permanent scowl marring his face, Ace looked much younger than when he was awake, the freckles dusting his cheeks giving him a boyish appearance that, the pirate guessed, would earn him a column of fire in his direction if he ever said it out loud. He might try if things became more boring, or he could try to discover if the young marine was interested in men at all.

Being alone in this island with a hot young man reminded Marco painfully of how long it had been since he had last got laid, and he almost regretted acting responsible in the crew and making sure the supplies were bought in the last three stops they had done.

Maybe not having sex, though it would be a nice bonus, but, Marco thought, getting to know the snoring man close to him would be far more interesting than staring at rocks while he waited for his crew to find him.

* * *

Ace looked up from his breakfast when the pirate sat next to him.

"What do you want?" He snapped.

"To talk."

Ace looked suspiciously, and slightly confused, at him. Nothing had happened that would require them to talk.

"About what?"

The other man shrugged.

"Anything."

Ace blinked and then scowled. Anything? Did he want to have a conversation with him or something like that?

Scowl deepening, he took another bite off of his meal.

"Why would I want to talk to you?"

"Aren't you bored?"

The answer to that question was obvious, as this place was far from the most thrilling he had been at, but that didn't mean he was going to admit it or talk to the pirate. He had spent a good part of his childhood, whenever he wasn't with Sabo and before meeting the other boy, alone, before Luffy forced his way into Ace's life and stole any moment of quiet he might have had.

Without giving an answer, he continued to eat.

The man didn't go away.

"Why did you become a marine?" Ace looked up, but didn't stop eating, and the blond kept talking. "Was it for some deep-rooted belief in justice? Did you suffer due to a pirate and now want revenge?"

Realizing the man wouldn't leave him alone just because Ace didn't want to talk to him, he sighed. Was being a selfish bastard a requisite to be a pirate? Probably not entirely. Luffy was no bastard, but he was really selfish, probably the most selfish person he had ever met.

"My gramps is a marine."

"Oh?" The blond turned his head, as if expecting Ace to say something else, but he didn't. "And that's it?"

"No."

"But you won't tell me."

"It's nothing of your business." Ace spat, his mood souring at the reminder of what prompted him to become a marine. "It's as if I asked you why you became a pirate."

"Freedom."

Ace's head snapped to the side, confusion plain at the unexpected word as he stared at the man.

"What?"

"That's why I became a pirate, I wanted freedom."

Having recovered from his momentary shock at the absurd answer, Ace spoke.

"You're a wanted man that'll be executed as soon as you get caught, that doesn't sound like much freedom to me."

Marco smiled at him.

"I'm a wanted man because the government doesn't approve of my freedom. But what they say doesn't matter, I'm living as I dreamed to, and that's what's important."

Right then, Ace's mind transformed Marco's calm and contented smile into a widely grinning boy, the echo of an impossible dream that the world would try to stop at any cost, yelled for everybody to hear resounding in his ears.

Pushing himself up, Ace stomped into the forest, forgetting his half-eaten breakfast.

* * *

Marco followed Ace's retreating back with his eyes. The boy had been incredulous and puzzled, probably having expected Marco to say he was a pirate for the money or the fame, but then that freckled face had adopted a strange expression, and the pirate knew the marine wasn't seeing him. It was as if Marco's words had triggered a memory or a thought, one so important that the boy had even forgotten about his meat.

But what had it been? That it didn't matter what the government, and by extension half of the world, thought about him? Or that he was living his dream?

He couldn't think of anything that could make a marine react like that at his words, it wasn't unheard of for a pirate to speak about freedom or what being a pirate brought them aside from money or fame.

Whatever the answer, it was something else to add to the mystery that was Portgas D. Ace.

**To be continued**

* * *

And this is it for today :) The plot moves.

Hope you liked it. Leave me a review? :3


End file.
